A 1981 study undertaken by the Ohio Board of Regents sought to learn more about the role of private sector organizations, particularly business and industry, in the training and education of adults in Ohio. Data were collected from two sources--a review of literature on employer-sponsored instruction and a survey of manufacturing and nonmanufacturing firms in Ohio. To provide a context for the study, employer-sponsored instruction was examined from a national and state (Ohio) perspective. It was found that employer-sponsored instructional programs are less pervasive than it is believed, it is provided to a rather small segment of the total adult workforce, many companies meet only a small portion of their human resource development needs through their own instructional programs, colleges and companies often work at cross purposes toward similar training and education objectives, and Ohio's colleges and universities can play a more significant role in retraining and upgrading of the adult workforce. It was suggested that the work-education relationship could be strengthened through access to higher education, a cost effective higher education system, quality programs, and cooperation with other organizations toward the improvement of Ohio's economy. (YLB)